UniSound announces next Beckom-Freeman Teaching Artists-in-Residence
UniSound announces next Beckom-Freeman Teaching Artists-in-Residence: Clara Kent and Jason Washington
PITTSBURGH – UniSound has selected Clara Kent and Jason Washington as its Season 5 Beckom-Freeman Teaching Artists-in-Residence.
Kent is an Afro-Indigenous (Oglala Lakota & Ojibwe) multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, and community leader from Pittsburgh’s Homewood community. In 2022, she began hosting a radio show on WYEP, “More Bounce with Clara Kent,” and launched her production company, Bounce House Studios & Productions LLC, a Black women-led organization whose mission is to “elevate the underground” through free programming and donation-based events for BIPOC artists. Her monthly “Elevate the Underground” series launches Feb. 2026 and will feature one Pittsburgh musician in exclusive interviews, sharing their music and creative process.
Washington is a Pittsburgh-based musician and educator. He’s an active band leader and freelance percussionist, performing with a wide range of artists throughout the region. He has served as a counselor with Urban Impact and is on the jazz faculty at Center of Life, a non-profit organization in the Hazelwood area, where he has developed a teaching approach rooted in relationship-building and meeting each student’s individual needs.
Season 5 marks five years of impact and continued investment in artistic leadership, with an alumni network of 11 teaching artists. The Beckom-Freeman Teaching Artist-In-Residence (BTAR) program supports the music practice and professional development of Black teaching artists in the greater Pittsburgh area. The Season 5 teaching artists will partner with UniSound and ACT3 Consulting Partners through Aug. 2026.
Formerly known as the Black Teaching Artist-in-Residence program, the initiative has evolved to include an additional Fellowship position and was renamed to recognize the impact of two influential educators and community builders in Pittsburgh’s music ecosystem: O’Labrice Beckom and Henrietta Freeman. This naming aligns the programs with its forebearers and affirms its mission to elevate teaching artists as culture bearers and community builders across the region.
Season 5 will be culminated with a celebration of teaching artists at the return of Synergies, held at Heinz Hall in Nov. 2026.
